1. Technical Field
This present invention relates generally to a server facilitating the delivery of interactive media to digital devices in a home network and more particularly to a server that delivers interactive content as part of a customized service to a plurality of users at home.
2. Related Art
Some media servers are available in the market that employ a NAS (network access server) technology to provide access to a shared storage (such as RAID based storage) from multiple personal computers at home. However, such media servers are of limited functionality and do not provide a whole lot of value to a user other than as file storage. For example, such servers do not distribute interactive media to devices at home. A user cannot generally access interactive media from such servers. A user cannot do much more than store files, store songs (such as MP3 songs) and some movies on such servers.
Some routers are available in the market for use at home (such as WiFi routers) that make it possible to provide Internet access to multiple computers at home when connected to a broadband modem. These routers are generally not capable of receiving some specific data associated with the user, process it, enhance it to make it useful to the user, and then present it to the user on a digital device associated with the specific user at home. In general, these routers do not have the capability to distribute data to various digital devices at home, then receive responses from those devices and act upon those responses. These routers or the aforementioned media server generally cannot conduct one or more follow up interactions with an external service provider system or a content provider system based on the user response to a content that is presented to a user by them.
Media Servers such as Windows Home Server are currently available in the market, and some users get them installed at home. The Windows Home Server makes it possible for multiple PCs to access a common hard-drive often employing NAS. These servers act as network storage that multiple PCs can share. They are used to store and organize digital memories such as photos, and media such as MP3 songs in one central location. Such stored songs can be streamed to Media devices such as TVs, eBook readers, electronic tablets, etc. The servers are also used to backup the home computers daily. Data Recovery is possible and a user can easily restore lost files or even entire hard drive contents in a few steps. With some difficulty, a user can share photos and home videos with friends and family using a built-in website.
However, media servers such as those based on Windows Home Server do not yet provide the ability to share workflows, share different calendar entries from different people living at home, or share data for activities planned by various members in a family. These media servers do not facilitate collaborative tasks, collaborative planning and easy convenient messaging. They do not support leaving messages (for others) by different people in a family, wherein the messages can be reviewed by every member of the family even if they are addressed to one individual. They do not facilitate checking plans made by others for travel, meetings, etc.
Often, when different people living at a residence all have their own PCs and use them to perform various tasks and plan various activities, there are no convenient means by which they can share their plans and activities with each other, other than by emailing notes to each other over email accounts. Some websites on the Internet make it possible to share files, but accessing the Internet requires each member of a family to employ his/her own PC to have Internet service, and then be able retrieve such files over Internet. Although all the members of a family live in the same residence, there are no easy mechanisms by which they can share information, such as plans, task lists, calendar entries, etc. without accessing websites over the Internet, or without emailing files to each other.
Some people use a home area network (HAN) to connect their digital devices at home. These are sometimes referred to as home networks. In general, a HAN is a network contained within a user's home that connects a person's digital devices, from multiple computers and their peripheral devices to telephones, VCRs, televisions, video games, home security systems, “smart” appliances, fax machines and other digital devices that are wired into the network. HANs in general, do not support automatically gathering and collating information such as calendar entries from multiple digital devices. Often, they do not have any media servers associated with them. Often, they only have a server that a user can use to save songs and movies. They help with streaming movies from the server onto TVs or streaming MP3 songs onto a TV or an MP3 based device. They are very limited in their functionality.
Current home networks or storage servers for home use do not provide easy to use services to users of mobile devices. They also have infrastructure that is rigid wherein it is not easy to create and deploy new solutions. However, the use of mobile devices at home has become ubiquitous and can be encountered in all walks of life. This is made possible due the wide coverage provided by wireless networks and their ability to be connected even at home. Mobile devices are typically used for voice calls and data access over wireless networks. Thus, there are very limited uses to which a typical user employs his mobile device, the main usage being voice calls and email access.
Currently mobile devices do not support interactive media effectively. A micro browser available in some mobile devices makes it possible to enter a URL and retrieve a web page. Some Internet websites can be accessed using the browser in some mobile devices. Unfortunately, new forms of interactive media are not supported in most mobile devices—these include questionnaires, audio-assisted activities, etc.
Normally, advertisements are provided on televisions (TVs) and newspapers. Often they are not interactive in the sense that the user can view them but cannot do much with these forms of advertisements. Advertisements provided as video clips that are easy to run on television (TV) and computers have been known for a while. However, these are not communicated to mobile devices typically. Some rudimentary forms of advertisements, in the form of text based SMS messages have been recently available. Mobile devices are currently confined to such limited text based advertisements. Mobile devices with poor display resolution are not effective in presenting large forms of media. Ads in the form of movies and video clips, shown in movies and on TV are not possible on mobile devices due to technical as well as usability reasons.
Current media distribution servers have no control over the media once delivered to its clients. They often deliver some form of text or a webpage to a mobile device. Some media distribution servers provide songs for download. Others provide movies for download. Client digital devices run some small programs such as an MP3 player or a video player to receive the songs or movies and play them on the mobile device. A browser in a mobile device may have a plug-in for a MP3 player or a video plugin and may be able to play songs and movies when downloaded by a user who uses the browser.
Present media distribution servers are not customized to deliver interactive media on the mobile devices to provide uniform services across the entire mobile user community due to the wide difference in the mobile device hardware architecture. Thus the current media distribution server often cannot compensate for the inherent limitation of digital devices, especially those of mobile device architecture. For example quite a few types of mass-market mobile devices cannot store large plug-ins and process movies and longtime video/audio clips (at the required display frame rate) unlike personnel or laptop computers. This is due to small storage, small system memory and relatively less powerful processing circuitry on the mobile devices. This requires a different approach to be accomplished by media distribution server in delivering image or audio/video clips on mobile devices. It also makes it necessary to develop new technologies for supporting interactive media on mobile devices.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.